Transdisciplinary research is a cross-border process that builds a bridge between academics and society. Since the 1990s, this new research method has been regarded as an approach to investigating complexity and to producing new forms of knowledge. This research approach is also considered promising in the complex field of regional planning and development, as it meets the demand for public participation and can integrate many different perspectives and positions through its cross-border approach. Using the example of experimental trans-disciplinary research on the regional development of the Oberpinzgau region in Austria, Vilsmaier illustrates the concept and methodology of trans-disciplinary research and its added value for spatial planning and development.
This academic journal article discusses the two major dueling schools of thought on the significance of borders in contemporary politics and society, namely those who see an increasingly « borderless world » and those who see new meaning and contexts to studying borders. Here, borders are not only considered as phenomena located at the edges of territories, but rather everywhere in between in societal practices and discourses. In particular, Paasi explains the importance of theory in border studies and develops new conceptual perspectives in order to understand the persistence of bounded territorial spaces.
Natural resource management (NRM) systems are characterized by complex relationships between technical, eco-social, economic, and political processes and perspectives. In the analysis and management of natural resource systems we encounter a multitude of social, disciplinary, cultural, and technical boundaries that can be bridged by a trans- and interdisciplinary research design. Many different concepts for inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration in NRM systems exist already in various research areas in the USA, Switzerland and Great Britain. The concept of “boundary work” provides an additional approach to designing effective and successful trans- and interdisciplinary research on NRM systems and to building bridges between science, politics, and society. In such trans- and interdisciplinary research, various problems arise, which are illustrated by relying on a research project on NRM systems in Uzbekistan.
The special issue on “Regional Worlds,” edited by Martin Jones and Anssi Paasi, combines various current theoretical perspectives on the region and accompanies this with empirical examples from Europe, Africa, and North America. The issue attempts to address the still-current significance of the region in geography and breaks down old dichotomous conceptualizations of “region” as either territorial or relational, in order to unite the conceptualizations. The authors point out that regions are constructed according to various disciplinary perspectives on different scales (sub-national, national, supranational, cross-border). They contextualize regions in connection with globalization, border regions, agency/advocacy, social construction, and historical processes of development and change.
At the heart of the Greater Region Saar-Lor-Lux, the development of a border-crossing labor force has been met with a diversification of its forms, including cross-border temporary labor. Temp-work agencies have begun to play an important role as intermediaries in these cross-border spaces, privileging the development of particular forms of employment and taking advantage of the different social and fiscal legislation characterizing different jurisdictions, all the while contributing to the recruitment of a cross-border labor-force.
